Leaving Less to Your Children

Plus, the true meaning of retirement, and donor-advised funds as a discipleship issue.

EDITOR’S NOTE: From time to time we will publish letters and emails we get from readers, sometimes with a response, sometimes without comment. If you would like to share your thoughts about any of our stories or podcasts, please email us: [email protected]

A flawed argument for leaving less to your children and more to ministries

I usually appreciate MinistryWatch’s reporting because it strives to be objective. That’s why this article surprised me. It reads less like journalism and more like advocacy.

The article cites Proverbs 13:22 — “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” — yet then argues that Christians should consider leaving less to their children and more to ministries. That conclusion doesn’t naturally follow from the passages cited.

The article also seems to rest on an unproven assumption: that ministries will steward an inheritance more faithfully than one’s own children. Given MinistryWatch’s own reporting over the years, that is a difficult assumption to accept. Week after week, MinistryWatch documents Christian nonprofits that misuse funds, lack accountability, or fail in governance. Those stories are precisely why your organization exists.

Children are also part of God’s Kingdom. If parents have raised them to love Christ, exercise wisdom, and live faithfully, why should we assume they are less capable of stewarding resources than nonprofit organizations? In many cases, they may be in the best position to continue a family’s legacy of generosity for decades to come.

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Of course, Christians should prayerfully consider supporting ministries through their estate plans. Many already do. But presenting the issue as though faithful stewardship generally means diverting wealth away from one’s children toward charitable organizations reflects a particular philosophy, not a clear biblical mandate.

Ironically, I find myself wondering what MinistryWatch would write if another ministry published an article encouraging readers to redirect their estates toward nonprofits while assuming nonprofits are inherently better stewards than faithful sons and daughters.

Today, you failed to uphold the standards you hold other nonprofits accountable to meet. Will you publish an apology to rectify your failure?

Ray Harris

Retirement is biblical, but retiring from Christian service is not

I’ve heard multiple people say the same thing you said in your article titled Finishing Well: “You won’t find the word or the idea in Scripture.”

Take a look at Numbers 8:23-26. Retirement was actually mandatory for the Levites at age 50.

“Retirement is not in the Bible anywhere” is something that gets repeated, so people assume that it’s true. Kinda like the idea that priests had to wear a rope on their ankles in case they died while they were in the Holy of Holies. That one gets repeated a lot, but unlike retirement, it’s not in the Bible anywhere.

I think I know what you meant. Permanent leisure and not being involved in the Great Commission is not an option for believers. The command to make disciples applies to all of us, until we take our last breath.

I enjoy your email newsletter and read it faithfully. Keep up the good work. I just wanted to point out something I learned a few years ago. Thanks.

Doug Pass

Donor-advised funds are tools, while generosity is a discipleship issue

I wanted to take a moment and thank you for your article, dated July 20, regarding Donor-Advised Funds.

I have been part of that world for the past 25 years and have seen the growth you reference. I simply speak as an individual and one voice. I thought I would add some additional perspectives and commentary (not in any order).

First, many of the institutions that offer tools such as donor-advised funds (DAF) are incentivized to hold the funds instead of distributing them since they earn fees and income on the assets under management. Their economic model is based upon this structure. There is an inherent conflict of interest.

I can proudly say that within the NCF space (and often the case with Christian-based giving), which I am familiar with, I typically have seen between 70-80% distribution annually and in some cases more going out throughout the given year than has come in (with the exception of the fourth quarter).

Second, a significant amount of the assets under management are in the form of non-liquid assets (S corps, C corps, etc.), meaning that someone may have given a percentage of their operating business to their DAF. The business continues to cash flow and is the source of their annual giving, however, it will show up within the foundation as an asset so it can appear that the organization is holding onto cash when in fact it’s not.

Third, some of our clients choose to use the DAF as an alternative to a private foundation and simply distribute a certain percentage of the earnings every year (that may be 5% or it may be more). Their desire is to pass the corpus onto their relatives and create a similar strategy as a private foundation.

Fourth and finally, I believe that in the end it’s a discipleship issue. Simply giving money to a DAF, getting a deduction, and then not distributing the funds is not generosity. I jokingly call it the “purgatory of giving.”

However, if someone has a generous heart, develops a giving strategy around that heart, and then uses wise counsel and tools to distribute those funds, we celebrate that, regardless of the timeline. Like I said, I believe it’s a discipleship issue — and that is a deep well.

Stephan Tchividjian

CEO and co-founder of The Caleb Group